Another Berengaria

I was lucky again, did not lose power during this Nor’easter, which was primarily a snowstorm in my corner of NJ. But they say 100,000 more people are now in the dark. New Jersey’s governor spoke for us all when he asked when we can expect the locusts and the plague.
On November 8th, 1246, Berenguela of Castile died. She was the daughter of Alfonso and Leonora of Castile and therefore Henry and Eleanor’s granddaughter. She was born in either 1179 or 1180 and was betrothed or wed in 1188 to Conrad, Duke of Saxony, the fifth son of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa and younger brother of the hated Heinrich. Conrad came all the way to Castile, but the marriage was not consummated since the little bride was only about 8. Frederick Barbarossa’s interest in this union was that Berenguela was then the heir to Castile. He lost interest in the marriage when Berenguela’s parents then had a son. Berenguela’s family got the Pope to annul the marriage contract in 1189. She had a close call here, for Conrad of Honehstaufen was a thug. He had a very bad reputation according to the German chroniclers and he would be murdered in 1196, purportedly by the husband of a woman he’d raped.
Berenguela then was wed to King Alfonso of Leon, her first cousin once removed; she was only about 11 or so at the time, but apparently they did not consummate the marriage until she was older, for she did not have her first child until 1198, when she was 18. She and Alfonso then had five children in rapid succession—1998, 1200, 1201, 1202, and 1203. But in 1204, something outrageous (at least to me) happened. One of my least favorite popes, Innocent III, declared the marriage was void for consanguinity. What makes this outrageous is that Berenguela and Alfonso had secured a dispensation from the previous pope, Celestine. They tried desperately to get Innocent to change his mind, but he refused to give them a dispensation. The most he would agree to do was to declare their children legitimate. So this obviously compatible young couple was forced to separate and Berenguela returned to her parents in Castile. Apparently she took their children with her.
When Berenguela’s parents died within a month of each other in 1214, the crown of Castile passed to her brother Henry. She acted as regent since he was underage during a period of turmoil in which Castile was threatened by civil war. But then young Henry died in a freak accident (hit by a roof tile) in 1217. Berenguela was now Queen of Castile, but she abdicated almost at once in favor of her 16 year old son, Ferdinand. She acted as his closest adviser, and arranged a marriage for him with Elizabeth of Hohenstaufen, the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Philip (youngest brother of the horrible Heinrich and the only good Hohenstaufen..) She showed herself to be no less shrewd than her more famous grandmother and was a great asset to her son during his reign, ruling on his behalf when he was away fighting the Saracens during the Reconquista. She also showed her Angevin family’s interest in literature and music, proving herself to be what we’d today call a patron of the arts. Like the Lionheart’s better known Berenguela, she is often called Berengaria, but Berenguela was her actual name. She sounds like a strong, highly capable woman, one whom I am sure would have gotten along splendidly with Eleanor. Well, a few differences—she was esteemed by the chroniclers for her virtue.  And unlike Eleanor, she had no interest in being a queen in her own right. But I think they would have discovered that they had much in common, both of them survivors who proved to be resilient, courageous, and devoted to their sons.